Musicians hear this often and sometimes find it annoying. But if you think of it, these are just people that feel connected to the thing you do, because they also love making music. when I say I’m a singer in my Master’s the response I get is often different. A frequently heard response is: “So cool! You don’t want to hear me sing, I’m awful.” So when you say you play an instrument, people are very keen on telling they also play a little bit of any musical instrument, but when you’re a singer people don’t know how soon they can tell you that they are rubbish at that.
This phenomena interests me as a vocal teacher. When people tell me they can’t sing, I immediately wonder: ok, but do they like it? Because maybe when they’re home alone they sing along loudly with their favourite music during the dishes. And maybe it’s not even that horrific, only one time they were caught by another family member who laughed and told them they sing so very out of tune!